Crow Castle

Posted by Luna (Osaka, Japan) on 21 February 2009 in Architecture.

Today I went to Okayama, home of the Japanese story of Momotaro, endless peach imagery (even on Okayama's sewer covers), muscats (for reasons still yet unknown), kibidango (a kind of rice dumpling), Ujo (Crow Castle) and Korakuen, one of the top three gardens of Japan.

Out of all the castles I've seen, Ujo is probably my favorite. Its exterior is a lot darker and more contrasting with the sky than other castles, say like Himeji, which seems to give it a more stronger, dominating, I'm-a-castle-and-don't-you-forget-it kind of air. Since the original was destroyed during World War II in 1966, this is of course a re-construction, and somewhere along the plans it was decided to put an elevator inside. (Just like Osaka Castle!)

On the second or third floor (can't remember which) you can take a picture of yourself donning an expensive looking kimono and look like a prince or princess. Around the corner, you can ride one of those cool looking Heian period palanquins that look really tiny on the outside.

.. Anyway! Back to the castle - because it's the only castle to be painted black, it's been called Ujo, or Crow Castle ever since.

A hop and a skip away will also take you to Korakuen, one of Japan's top three gardens (again, with the number three). Unfortunately, since the time my friend and I had visited the garden was very early spring, we were greeted by lifeless grass and a resulting bleak looking setting apart from the small patches of life found amongst the plum blossoms trees. However, since we delayed our visit slightly from the time playing about in Crow Castle, we were forced to rush through the garden and thus were forced out by an old man doing his best to shoo away lollygaggers with the use of a simple bell bike. It was awkward being eagle-eye stared at as we tried to rush and enjoy our time strolling through Korakuen, but fortunately we did "leisurely quick-paced strolling" and managed to catch some cranes that were caged in another area of the park, and some trees wrapped around with small straw mats, which I found rather curious..

snippet about this photoblog

This photoblog is mostly to cover my experiences and adventures on the JET Programme as an Osaka City ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) through photographs, from beginning to end. Check out the "about" section on the bottom of this page to find out more.

For my written blog, check out: http://little-chotto.blogspot.com

Listed on Photoblogs.org